GOCOP

Monday, May 23, 2016

Etisalat lifts local manpower with ETEPP 2016

Fastest
growing telecommunication company in Nigeria, Etisalat, has unveiled a set of postgraduate
students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as part of its 2015/16 Etisalat
Telecommunication Engineering Postgraduate Programme (ETEPP), reports ITRealms.

The course intakes were unveiled during the closing
ceremony of the 2016 edition of the
internship programme held in Abujarecently.

The
internship is part of the Etisalat Telecommunication Engineering Postgraduate
Programme (ETEPP), a Master’s Degree course in Telecommunication Engineering at
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria which is a Corporate Social Responsibility
initiative of Etisalat, aimed at developing indigenous manpower in the Nigerian
telecommunication industry.

ITRealms
gathered that this programme provides students with the opportunity to gain
practical knowledge through a month-long internship stint with various
departments of the technical division of Etisalat Nigeria.

The Vice President, Regulatory
and Corporate Affairs, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, explained that the internship
programme which commenced in 2013 is a flagship Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) initiative of Etisalat Nigeria designed for students to gain practical
experience in the field of telecommunication by undergoing a month-long work experience in various
departments of the engineering section of Etisalat, to augment and buttress
their course work in school.

“The
objective of this program is to drive and improve the quality of local manpower
in the telecommunication industry by adding practical knowledge to the theory
students have learnt in the school. Through this initiative, Etisalat is
grooming local telecommunication engineers that would take the industry to the
next level in the next 10 to 15 years,” he
said.

On
his part the Chief Technical Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Stephane Beuvelet said Etisalat
is proud to be involved in the telecommunication industry skill development
initiatives.

“ETEPP
and this internship are very important initiatives, designed by Etisalat to
ensure that these students become assets to Etisalat and the telecommunication
industry in future. This internship is a major step towards the development of
rounded engineers that would excel in both theoretical and field work,” Beuvelet
said.

Beuvelet
further explained that Etisalat took the challenge of raising and improving
local manpower in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria after observing a
gap in Nigerian universities offering courses in telecommunication engineering
in the country. “We are working in partnership with Plymouth University UK, the
Etisalat Academy, UAE and the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,” he said.

In addition to the Students Masters’ programme, he
said, lecturers of the Ahmadu Bello University
are also sponsored for their Ph.Ds
in Plymouth University UK, while three best students of ETEPP will be at the Etisalat Academy in the
UAE,” he said.

Applauding Etisalat for the good gesture, Head, Department of Computer Engineering, Ahmadu
Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Dr. Yusuf Jibril said “this CSR initiative of Etisalat
has impacted much on our department and our students in many ways. Under this
initiative Etisalat and Huawei Technologies donated state of the art equipment
to the department, exposed our students to the most recent practices in the
telecommunications industry and also sponsored some of our lecturers for their
PhD in Plymouth University UK. We really appreciate this good gesture and hope
other telecommunication companies can emulate this.”

One
of the interns of the Etisalat Telecommunication Postgraduate Programme
(ETEPP), Kelechi Okogwu, an M.Sc. student
ofTelecommunication
Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria expressed
his appreciation to Etisalat. According to him, the
initiative presents a wonderful opportunity to anyone interested in developing
a career in telecoms engineering, with
the course content well thought-out between the faculty and
Etisalat.

“The
internship programme reinforces our class room knowledge; in fact we have
benefited so much
starting from the basics of telecommunication technologies, to the current developments in
the industry, as well as a peep into the future of
telecommunication engineering,” he said.